Experts say Libyans are third force behind al-Qaeda
Dubai, 5 Feb. (AKI) - According to US counter-terrorism experts from West Point's military academy, the Libyan connection inside the terrorist group al-Qaeda is very strong and second only to the Egyptian and Saudi forces.
In consultations with West Point's experts by Arabic language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, the assassination of Abu Layth al-Libi, an al-Qaeda field commander, has not diminished these connections.
After the Egyptian and Saudi terrorist forces which dominate the Jihadist movement. "There has been a recent rise of Libyans inside the al-Qaeda network," explains terrorism expert Vahid Brown.
"Today, Egyptians and Saudis control the military strategies and sources of funding, but there are various signals that point out the increasing influence and usage of Libyans."
In the last few months many propaganda videos have appeared on the Internet showing Libyan militants present among the ranks of the terrorist group.
The number of Libyan militants has reportedly increased on three fronts - Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Experts say Libyans are third force behind al-Qaeda
Showing posts with label libya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label libya. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ/LIBYA: GADDAFI SON LINKED TO BLASTS IN IRAQ
Gaddafi son linked to blasts in Iraq
A SON of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible for explosions in northern Iraq, says a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qa'ida.
At least 38 people were killed and 225 wounded last Wednesday when a huge blast destroyed about 50 buildings in a Mosul slum. The next day, a suicide bomber killed the provincial police chief and two other officers as they surveyed the blast site.
Colonel Jubair Rashid Naief, a police official in Anbar province, said the attacks were carried out by the Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters who slipped into the country several months ago from Syria. He said the regiment, which is working with al-Qa'ida in Iraq, was supported by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, 36, eldest son of the Libyan leader.
"I am sure of what I am talking about, and it is documented," Colonel Naief said, adding he was "100per cent sure" of the younger Gaddafi's role in the terror group.
A man who answered the phone at Mr Gaddafi's office in Tripoli said he was unavailable for comment.
Colonel Naief said his information about the Seifaddin Regiment and the younger Gaddafi's purported role came from "reliable sources" maintained by his Anbar Awakening Council within the ranks of al-Qa'ida in Mosul and elsewhere. He said the information was passed to the US military two or three months ago.
"They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two to three months," Colonel Naief said of the Seifaddin Regiment. "Since then, they have taken up positions in the city and begun blowing up cars and launching other terror operations." The AAC is an alliance of Sunni tribes in the western province that turned against al-Qa'ida and began working with US forces. The council is credited with the sharp drop in violence in Anbar, once the main base for the insurgents.
Many of the council's fighters are believed to have been insurgents until they began receiving money from the US to turn their guns on their former extremist allies.
The US military did not comment on Colonel Naief's claim.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Gaddafi son linked to blasts in Iraq
A SON of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible for explosions in northern Iraq, says a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qa'ida.
At least 38 people were killed and 225 wounded last Wednesday when a huge blast destroyed about 50 buildings in a Mosul slum. The next day, a suicide bomber killed the provincial police chief and two other officers as they surveyed the blast site.
Colonel Jubair Rashid Naief, a police official in Anbar province, said the attacks were carried out by the Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters who slipped into the country several months ago from Syria. He said the regiment, which is working with al-Qa'ida in Iraq, was supported by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, 36, eldest son of the Libyan leader.
"I am sure of what I am talking about, and it is documented," Colonel Naief said, adding he was "100per cent sure" of the younger Gaddafi's role in the terror group.
A man who answered the phone at Mr Gaddafi's office in Tripoli said he was unavailable for comment.
Colonel Naief said his information about the Seifaddin Regiment and the younger Gaddafi's purported role came from "reliable sources" maintained by his Anbar Awakening Council within the ranks of al-Qa'ida in Mosul and elsewhere. He said the information was passed to the US military two or three months ago.
"They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two to three months," Colonel Naief said of the Seifaddin Regiment. "Since then, they have taken up positions in the city and begun blowing up cars and launching other terror operations." The AAC is an alliance of Sunni tribes in the western province that turned against al-Qa'ida and began working with US forces. The council is credited with the sharp drop in violence in Anbar, once the main base for the insurgents.
Many of the council's fighters are believed to have been insurgents until they began receiving money from the US to turn their guns on their former extremist allies.
The US military did not comment on Colonel Naief's claim.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Gaddafi son linked to blasts in Iraq
Thursday, August 09, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: QADAFI'S SON ADMITS THAT THE BULGARIAN NURSES WERE TORTURED
Seif al-Islam Makes a Confession: Bulgaria's Nurses were Tortured
The son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi admitted that the Bulgarian nurses, who were freed last month after eight years of confinement in the North African country, have been tortured.
"Yes, they were jolted with electricity and were threatened that their families will be persecuted," Seif al-Islam told Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in what comes as yet another frank confession following his former pariah state's nukes-for-Bulgarian nurses deal with France.
Seif al-Islam described once again the trial as politics of blackmail, but denied it was the Libyan side that started it. According to him Europe started the immoral game, while Libya just had scores to settle with the West and used the case with the medics to solve them in its favour.
He underlined that he believes in the impartiality of the Libyan judicial system and thanked Qatar for the key role that it played and its cooperation with France in bringing the case to an end.
Seif al-Islam ruled out the possibility of Libya being taken to court over the allegations of torturing the medics into confessions and denied as untrue the stories that the sixth medic, Palestinian-born Ashraf Al-Hadjudj, recounted from the times of his imprisonment.
The Bulgarian nurses have complained of severe torture during their police interrogation, saying they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.
During a two-hour interview for the New York Times Ashraf Al-Hadjudj recounted how he was kept in a room with three dogs and was also beaten. With his knees bent against his chest, he said, his hands and feet were tied around his legs. Then the police put the bar on a metal stand and spun him around "like a roasted chicken."
He said that for months he was forced to sleep with his hands tied behind his back, hanging from a wall. From that time on, Dr. Hazouz said, most of his perceptions of time became blurred. He could recall that the torture usually lasted until the morning call to prayer came from a nearby mosque. One of the more common tortures, he said, was to send electrical shocks to different parts of his body as he lay strapped naked to a bed.
Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the medics to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.
At the end of June 2006 a Libyan court rejected the appeal of the five Bulgarian medics on the acquittal of the Libyans, saying the evidence against the policemen was too weak to convict them.
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam Makes a Confession: Bulgaria's Nurses were Tortured
The son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi admitted that the Bulgarian nurses, who were freed last month after eight years of confinement in the North African country, have been tortured.
"Yes, they were jolted with electricity and were threatened that their families will be persecuted," Seif al-Islam told Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in what comes as yet another frank confession following his former pariah state's nukes-for-Bulgarian nurses deal with France.
Seif al-Islam described once again the trial as politics of blackmail, but denied it was the Libyan side that started it. According to him Europe started the immoral game, while Libya just had scores to settle with the West and used the case with the medics to solve them in its favour.
He underlined that he believes in the impartiality of the Libyan judicial system and thanked Qatar for the key role that it played and its cooperation with France in bringing the case to an end.
Seif al-Islam ruled out the possibility of Libya being taken to court over the allegations of torturing the medics into confessions and denied as untrue the stories that the sixth medic, Palestinian-born Ashraf Al-Hadjudj, recounted from the times of his imprisonment.
The Bulgarian nurses have complained of severe torture during their police interrogation, saying they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.
During a two-hour interview for the New York Times Ashraf Al-Hadjudj recounted how he was kept in a room with three dogs and was also beaten. With his knees bent against his chest, he said, his hands and feet were tied around his legs. Then the police put the bar on a metal stand and spun him around "like a roasted chicken."
He said that for months he was forced to sleep with his hands tied behind his back, hanging from a wall. From that time on, Dr. Hazouz said, most of his perceptions of time became blurred. He could recall that the torture usually lasted until the morning call to prayer came from a nearby mosque. One of the more common tortures, he said, was to send electrical shocks to different parts of his body as he lay strapped naked to a bed.
Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the medics to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.
At the end of June 2006 a Libyan court rejected the appeal of the five Bulgarian medics on the acquittal of the Libyans, saying the evidence against the policemen was too weak to convict them.
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam Makes a Confession: Bulgaria's Nurses were Tortured
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: 'REAL' TORTURE
Read it if you have the stomach for it...
Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hazouz after his release: "We will make you suffer until you confess."
What was the worst moment in more than eight years of torture, humiliation and the fear of death? It was the moment of our release.
When the guards entered my cell at 3:30 in the morning on July 24, they didn't jingle their keys or shout the way they normally did. Instead, they whispered: "Ashraf, Ashraf, wake up! You must prepare yourself for a visit."
I jumped up, looked at the clock and felt an ominous sense of doom. Who would visit me at this time of the night? The thought flashed through my mind that they were going to shoot me now, and that they would later claim that I had tried to run away.
A few minutes later I was standing in the office of the prison warden. I was told to apply my fingerprints to a piece of paper to confirm that I wanted to leave the country for Bulgaria. The process was videotaped. They took me to the part of the prison where the five Bulgarian nurses were kept, and then they took all of us to the airport.
There I was asked, once again, whether I wanted to stay in Libya or travel to Gaza. "I want to go to Bulgaria," I replied. "You have destroyed my life, my family's life and the lives of these nurses. I do not wish to remain in this sort of a country for another second." The official was livid. "You are witnesses," he barked at the Palestinian and Bulgarian envoys.
...
I was locked into a room with three dogs during the first few days. They ordered the animals to attack me. My leg is covered with scars from their bites. I had a large hole in my knee. I was served my meals in the bowl they used for the dogs. The five Bulgarian nurses were also being kept in this torture building. Every day our tormentors told us: "We will make you suffer until you confess." The torture periods were carried out between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.. This went on for months.
One of the things they did was to wrap bare wire around my penis. Then they would drag me around a room that was at least 40 by 40 meters. I screamed and cried.
One of the most excruciating things was their electric torture machine -- a manually operated box that works like a generator. They would attach the negative cable to a finger and the positive cable to one of my ears or my genitals. The most painful part of it wasn't the current but the fact that they could change the rate at which it was applied. When I became unconscious they would pour cold water on my naked body and continue the procedure.
During the torture with electrical shocks, they would show me the passports of the five Bulgarian nurses and say: These are Kristiana, Nasya, Valentina, Valya and Snezhana. The nurses suffered the same fate as I did. But we were unable to communicate with each other because I didn't speak Bulgarian yet.
Sometimes we were tortured in the same room. I saw them half-naked and they saw me completely naked when I was being given the electroshocks. We heard each other whimpering, crying and screeching. Kristiana was hung up on a window while they put me on an iron pallet and applied the electroshocks. I am ashamed to talk about all the things they did to the women. They were raped. Kristiana was forced to put a bottle in her vagina. At one point Nasya, who couldn't stand it anymore, broke off a piece of window glass and slit her wrist. They took her to the hospital, under a false name, and then they brought her back to our torture chamber.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hazouz after his release: "We will make you suffer until you confess."
What was the worst moment in more than eight years of torture, humiliation and the fear of death? It was the moment of our release.
When the guards entered my cell at 3:30 in the morning on July 24, they didn't jingle their keys or shout the way they normally did. Instead, they whispered: "Ashraf, Ashraf, wake up! You must prepare yourself for a visit."
I jumped up, looked at the clock and felt an ominous sense of doom. Who would visit me at this time of the night? The thought flashed through my mind that they were going to shoot me now, and that they would later claim that I had tried to run away.
A few minutes later I was standing in the office of the prison warden. I was told to apply my fingerprints to a piece of paper to confirm that I wanted to leave the country for Bulgaria. The process was videotaped. They took me to the part of the prison where the five Bulgarian nurses were kept, and then they took all of us to the airport.
There I was asked, once again, whether I wanted to stay in Libya or travel to Gaza. "I want to go to Bulgaria," I replied. "You have destroyed my life, my family's life and the lives of these nurses. I do not wish to remain in this sort of a country for another second." The official was livid. "You are witnesses," he barked at the Palestinian and Bulgarian envoys.
...
I was locked into a room with three dogs during the first few days. They ordered the animals to attack me. My leg is covered with scars from their bites. I had a large hole in my knee. I was served my meals in the bowl they used for the dogs. The five Bulgarian nurses were also being kept in this torture building. Every day our tormentors told us: "We will make you suffer until you confess." The torture periods were carried out between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.. This went on for months.
One of the things they did was to wrap bare wire around my penis. Then they would drag me around a room that was at least 40 by 40 meters. I screamed and cried.
One of the most excruciating things was their electric torture machine -- a manually operated box that works like a generator. They would attach the negative cable to a finger and the positive cable to one of my ears or my genitals. The most painful part of it wasn't the current but the fact that they could change the rate at which it was applied. When I became unconscious they would pour cold water on my naked body and continue the procedure.
During the torture with electrical shocks, they would show me the passports of the five Bulgarian nurses and say: These are Kristiana, Nasya, Valentina, Valya and Snezhana. The nurses suffered the same fate as I did. But we were unable to communicate with each other because I didn't speak Bulgarian yet.
Sometimes we were tortured in the same room. I saw them half-naked and they saw me completely naked when I was being given the electroshocks. We heard each other whimpering, crying and screeching. Kristiana was hung up on a window while they put me on an iron pallet and applied the electroshocks. I am ashamed to talk about all the things they did to the women. They were raped. Kristiana was forced to put a bottle in her vagina. At one point Nasya, who couldn't stand it anymore, broke off a piece of window glass and slit her wrist. They took her to the hospital, under a false name, and then they brought her back to our torture chamber.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./LIBYA: THE RELEASE OF BULGARIAN NURSES IS TIED THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER
Foreign medics deal was bound to Lockerbie case, says Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam
London. The deal with Great Britain that may lead to the extradition of sentenced Libyan citizen for Lockerbie attack was one of the keys for the solving of the case with the release of the sentenced Bulgarian medics, said Seif-al Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, cited by AFP.
Former secret agent of Libyan security services Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi who was sentenced in 1988 for having caused US passenger plane to explode above the sky of Scottish town Lockerbie obtained in June the right to appeal the sentence.
In an interview with French newspaper Monde Seif-al Islam said that Tripoli has bound Megrahi’s sentence to that of the five nurses and Palestinian doctor who were on death row for having deliberately infected Libyan children with HIV.
Gaddafi’s son voiced hopes for Megrahi's return to Libya.
Pertinent Links:
1) Foreign medics deal was bound to Lockerbie case, says Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam
London. The deal with Great Britain that may lead to the extradition of sentenced Libyan citizen for Lockerbie attack was one of the keys for the solving of the case with the release of the sentenced Bulgarian medics, said Seif-al Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, cited by AFP.
Former secret agent of Libyan security services Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi who was sentenced in 1988 for having caused US passenger plane to explode above the sky of Scottish town Lockerbie obtained in June the right to appeal the sentence.
In an interview with French newspaper Monde Seif-al Islam said that Tripoli has bound Megrahi’s sentence to that of the five nurses and Palestinian doctor who were on death row for having deliberately infected Libyan children with HIV.
Gaddafi’s son voiced hopes for Megrahi's return to Libya.
Pertinent Links:
1) Foreign medics deal was bound to Lockerbie case, says Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam
Saturday, July 28, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./FRANCE/LIBYA: FRENCH LIBYA NUKE DEALS - - - A "EUROPEAN DISGRACE"
France to Build Nuclear Reactor in Libya
Now that the Bulgarian nurses have been released, the rush to do business with Libya has begun. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was first off the mark, flying to Tripoli to meet with Moammar Gadhafi and sign a number of agreements -- including a deal on building a French nuclear reactor in Libya.
...
[and]
Sarkozy's Libya Nuke Deal 'A European Disgrace'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to Tripoli on Wednesday and struck a number of deals with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including promises to build a nuclear reactor. Now critics in Germany and France are crying foul, accusing him of going it alone and potentially endangering Europe.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) France to Build Nuclear Reactor in Libya
2) Sarkozy's Libya Nuke Deal 'A European Disgrace'
Now that the Bulgarian nurses have been released, the rush to do business with Libya has begun. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was first off the mark, flying to Tripoli to meet with Moammar Gadhafi and sign a number of agreements -- including a deal on building a French nuclear reactor in Libya.
...
[and]
Sarkozy's Libya Nuke Deal 'A European Disgrace'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to Tripoli on Wednesday and struck a number of deals with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including promises to build a nuclear reactor. Now critics in Germany and France are crying foul, accusing him of going it alone and potentially endangering Europe.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) France to Build Nuclear Reactor in Libya
2) Sarkozy's Libya Nuke Deal 'A European Disgrace'
Friday, July 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: BULGARIAN MEDICS INTEND ON SUING THEIR TORTURERS
Freed nurses seek legal action against `torturers'
Bulgarian medics freed by Libya after being held for more than eight years want legal action to be taken against the people they say tortured them while they were held in prison.
"We can forgive, but we cannot forget what has happened to us," Nasya Nenova, one of the six medics, told a news conference on Wednesday.
Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova and Ashraf al Hazouz said they were ready to testify in an investigation into 11 Libyan police officers, which Bulgaria started last January for alleged torture of the medics.
Libya had accused the six of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV. Fifty of the children died. The medics, jailed since 1999, were initially sentenced to death, but later had their sentence commuted to life imprisonment. They denied the charge and said their confessions were extracted under torture.
Speaking on Wednesday at their first press conference after being extradited to Bulgaria on Tuesday on the basis of a bilateral prisoner exchange treaty, the medics said they could forgive those who tortured them but said they want them tried.
"They tortured us, they did not allow us to have a lawyer. It was only after 13 months that we could meet with our lawyer and try to whisper what they were doing to us," Kristiana Valcheva said.
The Libyans will be investigated for allegedly using coercion, torture and threats -- between February and May 1999 -- to extract false confessions from the medics.
There has been no indication Libya would allow the officers to travel to Bulgaria to take part in any trial.
The medics received an emotional welcome on Tuesday from family members, government officials and hundreds of ordinary Bulgarians. They were immediately granted a presidential pardon.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Freed nurses seek legal action against `torturers'
Bulgarian medics freed by Libya after being held for more than eight years want legal action to be taken against the people they say tortured them while they were held in prison.
"We can forgive, but we cannot forget what has happened to us," Nasya Nenova, one of the six medics, told a news conference on Wednesday.
Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova and Ashraf al Hazouz said they were ready to testify in an investigation into 11 Libyan police officers, which Bulgaria started last January for alleged torture of the medics.
Libya had accused the six of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV. Fifty of the children died. The medics, jailed since 1999, were initially sentenced to death, but later had their sentence commuted to life imprisonment. They denied the charge and said their confessions were extracted under torture.
Speaking on Wednesday at their first press conference after being extradited to Bulgaria on Tuesday on the basis of a bilateral prisoner exchange treaty, the medics said they could forgive those who tortured them but said they want them tried.
"They tortured us, they did not allow us to have a lawyer. It was only after 13 months that we could meet with our lawyer and try to whisper what they were doing to us," Kristiana Valcheva said.
The Libyans will be investigated for allegedly using coercion, torture and threats -- between February and May 1999 -- to extract false confessions from the medics.
There has been no indication Libya would allow the officers to travel to Bulgaria to take part in any trial.
The medics received an emotional welcome on Tuesday from family members, government officials and hundreds of ordinary Bulgarians. They were immediately granted a presidential pardon.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Freed nurses seek legal action against `torturers'
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DAR AL HARB - E.U./EUROPE/EURABIA: EURABIA'S PAPERS REACT TO THE 'BLOOD MONEY' PAID FOR 6 FOREIGN MEDICS
'Blood money' paid for foreign medics' release
PARIS -- Many European papers Wednesday slammed EU negotiators for folding to "blackmail" and paying "blood money" for Libya's release of six foreign medics, while others hailed France's intervention especially as an "unprecedented success."
In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad said that the release of the medics Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan jail was "a happy ending, but not that happy."
"Let's hope the European Union will remember ... that Libya is guilty of blackmail, of taking hostages, and of accepting blood money," the paper said.
Danish daily Berlingske Tidene meanwhile charged the EU with "compensating" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his crimes.
"Crime always pays, at least if your name is Muammar Gaddafi and you are the absolute ruler of a country with oil ... and with a potentially very promising market on the borders of the EU," it said.
"Libya is today being compensated for having destroyed nine years of the lives of six innocent people," Czech daily Dnes chimed in.
The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor had been given death sentences commuted to life imprisonment for allegedly infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a Libyan hospital.
The medics, who have always denied the charges and say that their confessions were extracted under torture, were flown to Bulgaria Tuesday under a deal with the European Union and with the intervention of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia.
Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias lamented Wednesday that the financial conditions behind the deal were "unclear."
Sarkozy claimed that Europe had not paid "the slightest financial compensation" for the release, but others said that both Paris and Brussels had contributed to the deal's bottom line.
Austrian daily Kurier spoke of "expensive freedom" for the medics, saying that their release had led to "joy in Sofia, grins in Tripoli."
"What remains is the bitter after-taste of tough negotiations conducted by the EU with a state that de facto held six people hostage - and will profit from their extradition enormously," Kurier wrote.
Der Standard meanwhile claimed that the deal showed "the EU and its member states can be blackmailed and did not pay a small ransom."
London's Daily Telegraph said "the deal marks an undoubted victory for Libya's tough negotiating tactics," while the Times pointed out that the release was likely to lead to "lucrative contracts for French companies with the oil-rich African state."
Britain's The Guardian also criticized France for arriving late at the negotiation table and then stealing all the credit. "The deal was negotiated by the EU but, in a bizarre twist to a sad tale, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia turned up in Tripoli to gatecrash the delivery of the nurses," it said in an editorial.
Cecilia Sarkozy accompanied EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner to Tripoli Sunday to push for the medics' release and brought the six to Sofia in a French government jet.
Italian Repubblica had similar doubts over the role of the French first couple. "President Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia, in many people's opinion, imposed themselves in the Libyan affair, demanding glory a posteriori, while in reality all the details had been decided at least two weeks earlier," it said.
Spain's largest daily, however, hailed the French president's wife with the headline: "Cecilia Sarkozy, mission accomplished."
And Belgium's Le Soir emphasized that "by introducing couple diplomacy, [President Sarkozy] reaped twice the political benefits. While he has boosted his international reputation with a resounding diplomatic victory, he also propelled his wife's status to that of humanitarian muse."
The Bulgarian media had nothing but praise for the French presidential couple and Ferrero-Waldner for brokering the medics' return.
"France's first lady Cecilia is definitely the French woman who will remain in Bulgarian history," the Trud daily wrote in a full-page profile of the first lady.
"Ferrero-Waldner, the woman armed with a broad, sincere, and disarming smile, took the fate of the medics as her personal cause," a similar profile of the EU official stated.
Leftist daily Sega meanwhile said "Sarkozy gave it his all and won," claiming that the deal was an "unprecedented success for the new French president."
Pertinent Links:
1) 'Blood money' paid for foreign medics' release
PARIS -- Many European papers Wednesday slammed EU negotiators for folding to "blackmail" and paying "blood money" for Libya's release of six foreign medics, while others hailed France's intervention especially as an "unprecedented success."
In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad said that the release of the medics Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan jail was "a happy ending, but not that happy."
"Let's hope the European Union will remember ... that Libya is guilty of blackmail, of taking hostages, and of accepting blood money," the paper said.
Danish daily Berlingske Tidene meanwhile charged the EU with "compensating" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his crimes.
"Crime always pays, at least if your name is Muammar Gaddafi and you are the absolute ruler of a country with oil ... and with a potentially very promising market on the borders of the EU," it said.
"Libya is today being compensated for having destroyed nine years of the lives of six innocent people," Czech daily Dnes chimed in.
The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor had been given death sentences commuted to life imprisonment for allegedly infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a Libyan hospital.
The medics, who have always denied the charges and say that their confessions were extracted under torture, were flown to Bulgaria Tuesday under a deal with the European Union and with the intervention of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia.
Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias lamented Wednesday that the financial conditions behind the deal were "unclear."
Sarkozy claimed that Europe had not paid "the slightest financial compensation" for the release, but others said that both Paris and Brussels had contributed to the deal's bottom line.
Austrian daily Kurier spoke of "expensive freedom" for the medics, saying that their release had led to "joy in Sofia, grins in Tripoli."
"What remains is the bitter after-taste of tough negotiations conducted by the EU with a state that de facto held six people hostage - and will profit from their extradition enormously," Kurier wrote.
Der Standard meanwhile claimed that the deal showed "the EU and its member states can be blackmailed and did not pay a small ransom."
London's Daily Telegraph said "the deal marks an undoubted victory for Libya's tough negotiating tactics," while the Times pointed out that the release was likely to lead to "lucrative contracts for French companies with the oil-rich African state."
Britain's The Guardian also criticized France for arriving late at the negotiation table and then stealing all the credit. "The deal was negotiated by the EU but, in a bizarre twist to a sad tale, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia turned up in Tripoli to gatecrash the delivery of the nurses," it said in an editorial.
Cecilia Sarkozy accompanied EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner to Tripoli Sunday to push for the medics' release and brought the six to Sofia in a French government jet.
Italian Repubblica had similar doubts over the role of the French first couple. "President Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia, in many people's opinion, imposed themselves in the Libyan affair, demanding glory a posteriori, while in reality all the details had been decided at least two weeks earlier," it said.
Spain's largest daily, however, hailed the French president's wife with the headline: "Cecilia Sarkozy, mission accomplished."
And Belgium's Le Soir emphasized that "by introducing couple diplomacy, [President Sarkozy] reaped twice the political benefits. While he has boosted his international reputation with a resounding diplomatic victory, he also propelled his wife's status to that of humanitarian muse."
The Bulgarian media had nothing but praise for the French presidential couple and Ferrero-Waldner for brokering the medics' return.
"France's first lady Cecilia is definitely the French woman who will remain in Bulgarian history," the Trud daily wrote in a full-page profile of the first lady.
"Ferrero-Waldner, the woman armed with a broad, sincere, and disarming smile, took the fate of the medics as her personal cause," a similar profile of the EU official stated.
Leftist daily Sega meanwhile said "Sarkozy gave it his all and won," claiming that the deal was an "unprecedented success for the new French president."
Pertinent Links:
1) 'Blood money' paid for foreign medics' release
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: BULGARIA'S PORTION OF THE TRIBUTE PAYMENT, FOR THE NURSES TO LIBYA, MAY BE IN THE FORM OF DEBT FORGIVENESS
Bulgaria may forgive Libya debt in HIV case
SOFIA, (Reuters) - Bulgaria is considering writing off Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal that led to the release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
After more than eight years in jail, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian citizenship were freed on Tuesday under a cooperation accord between Tripoli and the European Union. "Undoubtedly, the issue of (forgiving) the Libyan debt is one of the possible ways for Bulgaria to contribute," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told a news conference on Wednesday. "The debt amounts to about $54 million. We will look at other possibilities too ... because this is a humanitarian act, not a ransom." He did not elaborate.
If Sofia forgives the Libyan debt, accumulated for arms and technical deliveries during the communist era, the money would be recycled into an international fund set up to help the families of more than 400 HIV victims.
The six medics were flown to Sofia on a French jet after the EU, which Bulgaria joined in January, brokered a last-minute deal on medical aid and political ties with Libya.
Bulgaria and its western allies had said the medics were innocent and suggested that not freeing them would hurt Libya's efforts to emerge from decades of diplomatic isolation imposed for what the West called its support of terrorism.
The small Balkan country, whose people wore ribbons saying "You are not alone" to support the medics, rejoiced at their return. "Freedom!", "At Last!", "Bulgaria is relieved, the medics are back home" read front-page headlines on Wednesday. "I was so happy yesterday when I saw them coming back, I even cried. It is unbelievable things went so wonderfully well," said 80-year-old pensioner Slavka Ivanova.
The six, who will stay for the next few days in the presidential residency on the outskirts of Sofia and undergo medical checks, will give a news conference later.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bulgaria may forgive Libya debt in HIV case
SOFIA, (Reuters) - Bulgaria is considering writing off Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal that led to the release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
After more than eight years in jail, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian citizenship were freed on Tuesday under a cooperation accord between Tripoli and the European Union. "Undoubtedly, the issue of (forgiving) the Libyan debt is one of the possible ways for Bulgaria to contribute," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told a news conference on Wednesday. "The debt amounts to about $54 million. We will look at other possibilities too ... because this is a humanitarian act, not a ransom." He did not elaborate.
If Sofia forgives the Libyan debt, accumulated for arms and technical deliveries during the communist era, the money would be recycled into an international fund set up to help the families of more than 400 HIV victims.
The six medics were flown to Sofia on a French jet after the EU, which Bulgaria joined in January, brokered a last-minute deal on medical aid and political ties with Libya.
Bulgaria and its western allies had said the medics were innocent and suggested that not freeing them would hurt Libya's efforts to emerge from decades of diplomatic isolation imposed for what the West called its support of terrorism.
The small Balkan country, whose people wore ribbons saying "You are not alone" to support the medics, rejoiced at their return. "Freedom!", "At Last!", "Bulgaria is relieved, the medics are back home" read front-page headlines on Wednesday. "I was so happy yesterday when I saw them coming back, I even cried. It is unbelievable things went so wonderfully well," said 80-year-old pensioner Slavka Ivanova.
The six, who will stay for the next few days in the presidential residency on the outskirts of Sofia and undergo medical checks, will give a news conference later.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bulgaria may forgive Libya debt in HIV case
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./LIBYA: 6 BULGARIAN NURSES & 1 'PALESTINIAN' DOCTOR ARE WORTH $461 MILLION DOLLARS ANOTHER OTHER FUTURE PAYMENTS
Medics Freed After Libyan-EU Deal
By Kevin Sullivan
LONDON, July 24 --Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor flew to freedom Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan prison, receiving a presidential pardon and bouquets of flowers at an emotional arrival ceremony in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.
"I waited so long for this moment," nurse Snezhana Dimitrova told reporters at the airport, where she and the other captives were reunited with family following an ordeal during which they had been sentenced to death after being convicted of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
Their release followed a series of complex behind-the-scenes negotiations involving a payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to the families of the infected children and promises of improved trade and aid ties between Libya and the European Union. Settling the medics' case, which had caused international uproar, was seen as the latest step by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to normalize relations between his once-pariah nation and his former adversaries in the West.
"It's the end of a nightmare for these women and this man. Everyone in Europe is convinced that they are innocent," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose wife, Cecilia, accompanied the medics on their flight from Libya on a French government plane. At a Paris news conference, Sarkozy immediately announced that he would travel to Libya on Wednesday "to help Libya rejoin the international community."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday that the release of the medics would mean the European Union would "go further on normalizing our relations with Libya," a Mediterranean nation that wants greater trade and development aid from its wealthy European neighbors to the north.
"Our relations with Libya were to a large extent blocked by the non-settlement of this medics issue," Barroso told reporters in Brussels.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who traveled to Libya with Cecilia Sarkozy, said the release of the medics was a "humanitarian decision" that came after agreement on a memorandum outlining "a new page in the history of relations between the EU and Libya."
"I share the joy of their families and friends and of the government and people of Bulgaria. For over eight years, we have never forgotten the suffering of the medical staff who have shown such dignity and fortitude during their long ordeal," Ferrero-Waldner said.
At the airport in Sofia, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said the long standoff with Libya ended largely because of Bulgaria's entry into the European Union at the beginning of this year. "The return of the medics is a direct result of Bulgaria's membership in the European Union, of the solidarity which the EU showed Bulgaria," he said.
The nurses and the Palestinian doctor--who was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month--have always insisted that they were innocent and that they were tortured into confessing. They have blamed the infections on poor hygiene conditions in the Benghazi hospital where they worked. Independent medical studies showed that the infections at their hospital predated their arrival by several years. Libyans had accused them of conducting an AIDS experiment that went wrong.
French officials said the deal reached for the medics release also included provisions for the improvement of medical care for the Libyan children infected with HIV/AIDS, more than 50 of whom have died.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul-Rahman Shalqam told reporters in Tripoli that the agreement with the EU called for the EU to fund "life-long treatment" for the infected children as well as providing money to make improvements to the hospital where they were infected. He said the deal also called for aid for education, to protect historical sites and to help Libya secure its borders to combat the massive flows of illegal immigrants who move through Libya to Europe.
...
[and]
EU Commission establishes $461 mln fund for HIV-infected children
Brussels, 24 July (AKI) - The European Commission has pledged to see that international donors give a total 461 million dollars to a special fund for the victims of the 461 children infected with HIV at a hospital in the Libyan port city of Benghazi, the EU's external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday.
Libya on the same day released to Bulgaria six foreign medics convicted of infecting the children following negotiations with EU officials in Tripoli and intense international pressure.
"The EU executive's commitment is clearly stated in article 1 of our memorandum of understanding with Libya, which at 6 am this morning enabled the Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be transferred to Sofia," said Ferrero-Waldner.
She was referring to the medics, who had been sentences to life in jail. They had previously been sentenced to death and have already spend eight years in jail.
Donations to the Benghazi fund will be "voluntary" and can come from government and non-government donors, she said. The EU Commission "will naturally solicit the funds," Ferrero-Waldner added.
The sum (461 million dollars) is exactly that asked for by the families, and corresponds to one million dollars per family," of which the EU Commission will contribute 12.5 million euros (17.3 million dollars), she said.
The MoU signed between Libya and the EU also contains a series of commitments from the bloc in various areas,. These include boosting Libyan exports to Europe - especially agricultural products and fish - the granting of visas, illegal immigration and archaeology.
The accord also agrees to establish a mechanism for surveying Libya's coastline. Libya is one of the main 'transit' countries for would-be illegal immigrants to Europe from Africa.
Other measures include scholarships and training for Libyan students in European universities in all subjects and the issuing of visas in exchange for the dropping of visa requirements for EU citizens visiting Libya.
Under the MoU, the EU also commits to giving its continued full support to Libya's anti-AIDS programme and to "providing further sums to this effect." The bloc also promises to "undertake the necessary efforts" to make the Benghazi centre for infectious diseases a centre of excellence at regional level that will benefit from multilateral aid.
The EU also pledges to maintain longterm health care for the Benghazi child HIV victims that meets international standards including specialist treatment in European hospitals funded by the bloc and voluntary contributions from member states.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Medics Freed After Libyan-EU Deal
2) EU Commission establishes $461 mln fund for HIV-infected children
By Kevin Sullivan
LONDON, July 24 --Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor flew to freedom Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan prison, receiving a presidential pardon and bouquets of flowers at an emotional arrival ceremony in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.
"I waited so long for this moment," nurse Snezhana Dimitrova told reporters at the airport, where she and the other captives were reunited with family following an ordeal during which they had been sentenced to death after being convicted of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
Their release followed a series of complex behind-the-scenes negotiations involving a payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to the families of the infected children and promises of improved trade and aid ties between Libya and the European Union. Settling the medics' case, which had caused international uproar, was seen as the latest step by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to normalize relations between his once-pariah nation and his former adversaries in the West.
"It's the end of a nightmare for these women and this man. Everyone in Europe is convinced that they are innocent," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose wife, Cecilia, accompanied the medics on their flight from Libya on a French government plane. At a Paris news conference, Sarkozy immediately announced that he would travel to Libya on Wednesday "to help Libya rejoin the international community."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday that the release of the medics would mean the European Union would "go further on normalizing our relations with Libya," a Mediterranean nation that wants greater trade and development aid from its wealthy European neighbors to the north.
"Our relations with Libya were to a large extent blocked by the non-settlement of this medics issue," Barroso told reporters in Brussels.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who traveled to Libya with Cecilia Sarkozy, said the release of the medics was a "humanitarian decision" that came after agreement on a memorandum outlining "a new page in the history of relations between the EU and Libya."
"I share the joy of their families and friends and of the government and people of Bulgaria. For over eight years, we have never forgotten the suffering of the medical staff who have shown such dignity and fortitude during their long ordeal," Ferrero-Waldner said.
At the airport in Sofia, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said the long standoff with Libya ended largely because of Bulgaria's entry into the European Union at the beginning of this year. "The return of the medics is a direct result of Bulgaria's membership in the European Union, of the solidarity which the EU showed Bulgaria," he said.
The nurses and the Palestinian doctor--who was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month--have always insisted that they were innocent and that they were tortured into confessing. They have blamed the infections on poor hygiene conditions in the Benghazi hospital where they worked. Independent medical studies showed that the infections at their hospital predated their arrival by several years. Libyans had accused them of conducting an AIDS experiment that went wrong.
French officials said the deal reached for the medics release also included provisions for the improvement of medical care for the Libyan children infected with HIV/AIDS, more than 50 of whom have died.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul-Rahman Shalqam told reporters in Tripoli that the agreement with the EU called for the EU to fund "life-long treatment" for the infected children as well as providing money to make improvements to the hospital where they were infected. He said the deal also called for aid for education, to protect historical sites and to help Libya secure its borders to combat the massive flows of illegal immigrants who move through Libya to Europe.
...
[and]
EU Commission establishes $461 mln fund for HIV-infected children
Brussels, 24 July (AKI) - The European Commission has pledged to see that international donors give a total 461 million dollars to a special fund for the victims of the 461 children infected with HIV at a hospital in the Libyan port city of Benghazi, the EU's external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday.
Libya on the same day released to Bulgaria six foreign medics convicted of infecting the children following negotiations with EU officials in Tripoli and intense international pressure.
"The EU executive's commitment is clearly stated in article 1 of our memorandum of understanding with Libya, which at 6 am this morning enabled the Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be transferred to Sofia," said Ferrero-Waldner.
She was referring to the medics, who had been sentences to life in jail. They had previously been sentenced to death and have already spend eight years in jail.
Donations to the Benghazi fund will be "voluntary" and can come from government and non-government donors, she said. The EU Commission "will naturally solicit the funds," Ferrero-Waldner added.
The sum (461 million dollars) is exactly that asked for by the families, and corresponds to one million dollars per family," of which the EU Commission will contribute 12.5 million euros (17.3 million dollars), she said.
The MoU signed between Libya and the EU also contains a series of commitments from the bloc in various areas,. These include boosting Libyan exports to Europe - especially agricultural products and fish - the granting of visas, illegal immigration and archaeology.
The accord also agrees to establish a mechanism for surveying Libya's coastline. Libya is one of the main 'transit' countries for would-be illegal immigrants to Europe from Africa.
Other measures include scholarships and training for Libyan students in European universities in all subjects and the issuing of visas in exchange for the dropping of visa requirements for EU citizens visiting Libya.
Under the MoU, the EU also commits to giving its continued full support to Libya's anti-AIDS programme and to "providing further sums to this effect." The bloc also promises to "undertake the necessary efforts" to make the Benghazi centre for infectious diseases a centre of excellence at regional level that will benefit from multilateral aid.
The EU also pledges to maintain longterm health care for the Benghazi child HIV victims that meets international standards including specialist treatment in European hospitals funded by the bloc and voluntary contributions from member states.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Medics Freed After Libyan-EU Deal
2) EU Commission establishes $461 mln fund for HIV-infected children
Saturday, March 31, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - LIBYA: ISLAM IS A UNIVERSAL RELIGION
Gaddafi says only Islam a universal religion
By Salah Sarrar
AGADEZ, Niger (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday that it was a mistake to believe that Christianity was a universal faith alongside Islam.
"There are serious mistakes -- among them the one saying that Jesus came as a messenger for other people other than the sons of Israel," he told a mass prayer meeting in Niger.
"Christianity is not a faith for people in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Other people who are not sons of Israel have nothing to do with that religion," he said at the prayer meeting, held to mark the birth of the prophet Mohammed.
...
"It is a mistake that another religion exists alongside Islam. There is only one religion which is Islam after Mohammed," he said in the sermon, which was broadcast live on Libyan state television.
"All those believers who do not follow Islam are losers," he added. "We are here to correct the mistakes in the light of the teachings of the Koran."
Gaddafi also said it was a mistake to believe that Jesus had been crucified and killed. "It is not correct to say that. Another man resembling Jesus was crucified in his place."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Gaddafi says only Islam a universal religion
By Salah Sarrar
AGADEZ, Niger (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday that it was a mistake to believe that Christianity was a universal faith alongside Islam.
"There are serious mistakes -- among them the one saying that Jesus came as a messenger for other people other than the sons of Israel," he told a mass prayer meeting in Niger.
"Christianity is not a faith for people in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Other people who are not sons of Israel have nothing to do with that religion," he said at the prayer meeting, held to mark the birth of the prophet Mohammed.
...
"It is a mistake that another religion exists alongside Islam. There is only one religion which is Islam after Mohammed," he said in the sermon, which was broadcast live on Libyan state television.
"All those believers who do not follow Islam are losers," he added. "We are here to correct the mistakes in the light of the teachings of the Koran."
Gaddafi also said it was a mistake to believe that Jesus had been crucified and killed. "It is not correct to say that. Another man resembling Jesus was crucified in his place."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Gaddafi says only Islam a universal religion
Monday, February 05, 2007
DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER SPEAKS TO SEIF AL-ISLAM ON BEHALF OF BULGARIAN NURSES
France’s Foreign Minister Discussed Bulgarian Nurses’ Case with Seif al-Islam
Paris. “We expect a recent solution to the case of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor who were sentenced to death on charges of having deliberately infected Libyan children with the HIV virus”, France’s Foreign Minister Phillip Dust-Blazi said, the online edition of the Libyan daily Libya Today reported. He expressed hope that the Libyan authorities would “show mercy”. The French Foreign Minister added that he had met with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam recently. They discussed the fate of the medics, whose death sentences were confirmed on December 19, 2006. Phillip Dust-Blazi did not specify the result of the talks. Recently Seif al-Islam, who chairs the Libyan foundation Gaddafi told Bulgarian media that the Jamahiriya had proposed to release the medics in exchange for paying compensation to the families of the infected children.
Pertinent Links:
1) France’s Foreign Minister Discussed Bulgarian Nurses’ Case with Seif al-Islam
Paris. “We expect a recent solution to the case of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor who were sentenced to death on charges of having deliberately infected Libyan children with the HIV virus”, France’s Foreign Minister Phillip Dust-Blazi said, the online edition of the Libyan daily Libya Today reported. He expressed hope that the Libyan authorities would “show mercy”. The French Foreign Minister added that he had met with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam recently. They discussed the fate of the medics, whose death sentences were confirmed on December 19, 2006. Phillip Dust-Blazi did not specify the result of the talks. Recently Seif al-Islam, who chairs the Libyan foundation Gaddafi told Bulgarian media that the Jamahiriya had proposed to release the medics in exchange for paying compensation to the families of the infected children.
Pertinent Links:
1) France’s Foreign Minister Discussed Bulgarian Nurses’ Case with Seif al-Islam
Friday, February 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB - FRANCE / LIBYA / BULGARIA: RELEASE THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER, WE WILL RELEASE THE 5 BULGARIAN NURSES
Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for nurses’ release is “immoral bargaining”: lawyer
Paris. French lawyer Emmanuel Altit, who defends the five Bulgarian nurses in Libya, said Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for their release was “immoral bargaining”, the French newspaper L'Humanité reported. The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafo proposed an exchange of the nurses’ release for the freedom of the Libyan convicted for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. “The aim (of Libya) is to drive Europeans to the wall: if they refuse, they will be responsible for the failure”, the lawyer stated.Faced with such a parody of justice, the lawyers have only one thing in mind – to consider the case in the most serious way to show that it is neither a just trial, nor an impartial trial, and to propose a global strategy relying both on the media and politics”, Altit said.
People need to understand that islam & moslems have a different set of "morals" than residents of Christendom...
The earlier people come to that conclusion, the earlier Christendom can fight back, otherwise they are just going to continue stumbling to their demise...
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for nurses’ release is “immoral bargaining”: lawyer
Paris. French lawyer Emmanuel Altit, who defends the five Bulgarian nurses in Libya, said Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for their release was “immoral bargaining”, the French newspaper L'Humanité reported. The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafo proposed an exchange of the nurses’ release for the freedom of the Libyan convicted for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. “The aim (of Libya) is to drive Europeans to the wall: if they refuse, they will be responsible for the failure”, the lawyer stated.Faced with such a parody of justice, the lawyers have only one thing in mind – to consider the case in the most serious way to show that it is neither a just trial, nor an impartial trial, and to propose a global strategy relying both on the media and politics”, Altit said.
People need to understand that islam & moslems have a different set of "morals" than residents of Christendom...
The earlier people come to that conclusion, the earlier Christendom can fight back, otherwise they are just going to continue stumbling to their demise...
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for nurses’ release is “immoral bargaining”: lawyer
Saturday, January 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - BULGARIA / LIBYA: 5 BULGARIAN NURSES ARE TO BE SPARED, SO SAYS GADDAFI'S SON
Nurses to be spared execution: Gaddafi’s son
SOFIA - Five Bulgarian nurses who were sentenced to death in Libya for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus will not be executed, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Saturday.
Saif Al Islam Gaddafi guaranteed that the women would not be executed in an interview in Paris that was published in Bulgaria’s 24 Chassa newspaper.
The 33-year-old engineer runs the Gaddafi Humanitarian Foundation.
The women and a Palestinian doctor have been held in Libya for the past eight years.
The death sentences against the group were confirmed by a Libyan court shortly before Christmas 2006.
They are accused of deliberately infecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus in a hospital in the port city of Benghazi.
AIDS experts have said that the epidemic broke out before the Bulgarian nurses arrived at the children’s hospital.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Nurses to be spared execution: Gaddafi’s son
SOFIA - Five Bulgarian nurses who were sentenced to death in Libya for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus will not be executed, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Saturday.
Saif Al Islam Gaddafi guaranteed that the women would not be executed in an interview in Paris that was published in Bulgaria’s 24 Chassa newspaper.
The 33-year-old engineer runs the Gaddafi Humanitarian Foundation.
The women and a Palestinian doctor have been held in Libya for the past eight years.
The death sentences against the group were confirmed by a Libyan court shortly before Christmas 2006.
They are accused of deliberately infecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus in a hospital in the port city of Benghazi.
AIDS experts have said that the epidemic broke out before the Bulgarian nurses arrived at the children’s hospital.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Nurses to be spared execution: Gaddafi’s son
Sunday, January 21, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - LIBYA & E.U.: LIBYA THREATENS WHILE E.U. BLOVIATES ABOUT THE LIVES OF 5 NURSES
Gaddafi's son warns Europe over Bulgarian nurses' case
AP
Tripoli: The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday warned European Parliament members against politicising the case of five Bulgarian nurses, who were convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV and sentenced to death last month.
The warning from Saif Al Islam Gaddafi came in response to threats made by the European Commission that Libyan-European relations would be harmed if the Bulgarian nurses were executed.
"Pressures by Europeans on Libya will have a negative impact on the situation of the nurses and the Palestinian doctor and will take the case out of its legal and judiciary context to the political arena," the younger Gaddafi said in the statement issued by the Gaddafi International Association for Charitable Organisations, which he heads.
He also cautioned that European pressures would "hinder efforts exerted in several directions to reach a just solution and complete settlement for this issue." He did not elaborate.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Gaddafi's son warns Europe over Bulgarian nurses' case
AP
Tripoli: The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday warned European Parliament members against politicising the case of five Bulgarian nurses, who were convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV and sentenced to death last month.
The warning from Saif Al Islam Gaddafi came in response to threats made by the European Commission that Libyan-European relations would be harmed if the Bulgarian nurses were executed.
"Pressures by Europeans on Libya will have a negative impact on the situation of the nurses and the Palestinian doctor and will take the case out of its legal and judiciary context to the political arena," the younger Gaddafi said in the statement issued by the Gaddafi International Association for Charitable Organisations, which he heads.
He also cautioned that European pressures would "hinder efforts exerted in several directions to reach a just solution and complete settlement for this issue." He did not elaborate.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Gaddafi's son warns Europe over Bulgarian nurses' case
Saturday, January 06, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM-LIBYA: FREE THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER - - - WE FREE THE BULGARIAN NURSES SENTENCED TO DEATH SO SAYS GADDAFI...
Daily Record: Free Bomber to Save Bulgaria's Nurses
Politics: 6 January 2007, Saturday.Five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death will only be spared if the Lockerbie bomber is freed, the Scottish Daily Record covers the latest stage of the prolonged drama in Libya.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been urged to spare the women, and a Palestinian doctor, who were found guilty of deliberately infecting children with HIV.
But he pledged their lives would only be saved if Lockerbie bomber Abel Baset Al-Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland.
Libyan Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 for the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, killing 270.
Last night, the families of the nurses, who claim all five were tortured into confessing, were furious, the Daily Record comments.
Dr Zdravko Georgiev, whose wife Kristiana faces death, said: "It makes me sick. But no matter how wrong it is, I want my wife back."
Pertinent Links:
1) Daily Record: Free Bomber to Save Bulgaria's Nurses
Politics: 6 January 2007, Saturday.Five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death will only be spared if the Lockerbie bomber is freed, the Scottish Daily Record covers the latest stage of the prolonged drama in Libya.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been urged to spare the women, and a Palestinian doctor, who were found guilty of deliberately infecting children with HIV.
But he pledged their lives would only be saved if Lockerbie bomber Abel Baset Al-Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland.
Libyan Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 for the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, killing 270.
Last night, the families of the nurses, who claim all five were tortured into confessing, were furious, the Daily Record comments.
Dr Zdravko Georgiev, whose wife Kristiana faces death, said: "It makes me sick. But no matter how wrong it is, I want my wife back."
Pertinent Links:
1) Daily Record: Free Bomber to Save Bulgaria's Nurses
Thursday, December 28, 2006
DAR AL ISLAM: IRAN & LIBYA SIGN AGREEMENTS...
Iran, Libya sign agreements
Iran and Libya here on Wednesday evening inked two agreements and a letter of understanding on expansion of bilateral cooperation.
The two agreements on 'tourism and cultural heritage' and 'encouraging investment' were signed by Iran's Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeedi-Kia and Secretary of the General's Committee for Planning of Libya al-Tahrir al-Hadi al-Juhaymi while, the letter of understanding was inked by al-Juhaymi and Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jaafari.
Addressing the meeting, Saeedi-Kia expressed hope the agreements would lead to further expansion of Tehran-Tripoli cooperation.
Al-Juhaymi, for his part, called for materialization of the agreements reached between the two sides and called for further activation of the two countries' chambers of commerce, particularly in the area of investment and trade.
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran, Libya sign agreements
Iran and Libya here on Wednesday evening inked two agreements and a letter of understanding on expansion of bilateral cooperation.
The two agreements on 'tourism and cultural heritage' and 'encouraging investment' were signed by Iran's Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeedi-Kia and Secretary of the General's Committee for Planning of Libya al-Tahrir al-Hadi al-Juhaymi while, the letter of understanding was inked by al-Juhaymi and Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jaafari.
Addressing the meeting, Saeedi-Kia expressed hope the agreements would lead to further expansion of Tehran-Tripoli cooperation.
Al-Juhaymi, for his part, called for materialization of the agreements reached between the two sides and called for further activation of the two countries' chambers of commerce, particularly in the area of investment and trade.
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran, Libya sign agreements
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